Hin­uera take early lead with Pu­taruru chase not enough

First off, an apol­ogy. Ricky Ed­wards was player of the day the week be­fore against Leamington.

Hin­uera hosted Pu­taruru at Weal­lean’s Park on Thurs­day night. Both teams were will­ing to run the ball when­ever pos­si­ble. Per­haps Pu­taruru felt the sting of Hin­uera’s loss the pre­vi­ous week, or maybe the re­turn of Zane Her­rick fired up the troops.

What­ever the rea­son, the gold and blacks be­gan the match in more promis­ing fash­ion that it had achieved in pre­vi­ous weeks. The game was hel­ter skel­ter, with han­dling er­rors. Pu­taruru also en­tered into the spirit but couldn’t fin­ish off their hard work.

Hin­uera took an early lead when An­drew Tiddy led the way with a burst up field, Josh Hedge scor­ing in the fifth minute.

Pu­taruru tried run­ning the ball, but Hin­uera’s de­fence pushed them side­ways. Con­stant pres­sure did re­sult in a penalty be­fore half time, 12- 3 to Hin­uera. McNaughton in­creased Hin­uera’s lead with a penalty, 15-3, then Pu­taruru scored a well-de­served try to lessen the gap, 15-8 Hin­uera. Ryan Wil­son made up for this quiet game the pre­vi­ous week to dot down, Hin­uera 20-8 in the 20th minute.

Pu­taruru lived dan­ger­ously in their own quar­ter and paid the price with fur­ther tries to Hedge and Bradley Leuthard, three con­ver­sions to McNaughton bring­ing the hosts score to 36-8.